“I was not surprised by ESPN’s decision. They have been taking ‘Sunday Night Baseball’ in a different direction the last two years and I was not comfortable with that direction.”

So Morgan may not be bothered by ESPN’s decision(at least this is what he’s telling us; I’m sure he’s at least a little bitter as he is with most everything), and may have wanted to be done with the gig anyway. Why? As The New York Times pointed out in the article, there was only one clear change to the Sunday Night Baseball broadcasts over the last two years: Another analyst joining Morgan in the booth. Two years ago it was Steve Phillips, who was fired from ESPN later in the year because of his well-documented affair with an ESPN employee. He was replaced this past season by Orel Hershiser.

See, Morgan wanted to be the only guy analyzing these games. He’s a bitter dickhead. Joe Morgan is the best at everything in Joe Morgan’s mind, and he doesn’t want people thinking he’s not. It’s the same reason he made it sound like Ryne Sandberg shouldn’t be a Hall of Famer, when most everybody else in the baseball world thought otherwise. Hell, he didn’t even attend Sandberg’s induction, something a living Hall of Famer is more or less obligated to do.

Nobody can challenge Morgan as a second baseman in his mind, and it’s the same way he’s always thought of himself as a color commentator. Thankfully, ESPN thought otherwise on the latter. Finally.